Tamworth mountain biker Mick Sherwood is contemplating his next big challenge after scaling 'Everest' on the weekend.
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With the coronavirus pandemic leaving a trail of cancelled competitions and events in it's wake, athletes across the sporting spectrum have been seeking avenues to satiate their competitive instincts and desire to challenge themselves.
Sherwood is case in point.
With the 24-hour solo event he was supposed to be competing in cancelled, he decided to have a crack at the Everest Challenge. Known as Everesting, the concept is to climb the equivalent height of Mt Everest (8,848m) "on the same climb on the same ride without stopping".
"There's no time limit, it's just a bit of a challenge that someone has come up with and put out there for people to give it a go," Sherwood said.
"With the cancellation of the race I thought I might as well make good use of all the training I've been doing and just do something that you normally wouldn't do during the standard race calendar year."
Sherwood's goal was to complete the challenge inside 12 hours, which he did.
The feat saw him make the trek up to the Tamworth lookout over 80 times. He lost count of the exact amount of times but joked that he "can remember every corner".
"It's a great little climb there's a bit over 100m of elevation each time," he said.
Using the computer attached to his bike he was able to monitor how he was tracking against measurements from training and testing, and ensure he wasn't exerting himself too much.
He also got some support at different times throughout the night from a few local riders, which helped him stay motivated.
"It was great to have a bit of company spread out throughout the night," he said.
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Riding for the most part in the night, he said it was "really surreal at times".
"It's a great time to head up there, at night, and as you can imagine the view with the lights of Tamworth City is just incredible at the top," he said.
He said there weren't really any moments where he thought about throwing in the towel, and reflected on the achievement with a sense of satisfaction.
"It was great to achieve it and get it done and no doubt I'll be picking another climb soon to get another one done," he said.
With racing cancelled indefinitely, Sherwood is looking at some different challenges to test himself.
"Possibly some 24 hour stuff. Potentially, depending on how long they postpone races, even looking at a suitable slot to attempt a 24-hour distance record," he said.
"You've just got to think outside the box at these times."
Before COVID-19 blew in like a hurricane, Sherwood had been planning to head over to Italy in June. He was looking at spending a couple of months over there and had a couple of stage races in the Alps lined up.
"With the nature of things in Europe at the moment I've decided to postpone that until next year," he said.
Fortunately a lot of the major events in Australia are in the latter few months of the year.
"Hopefully they can still go ahead if things improve," Sherwood said.
And while he would love to be able to race, he said it is a good chance to take a bit of step back and work on some of the little things that normally get neglected during the race calendar season.
